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Coins, Currency, and Medals

The Museum possesses one of the largest numismatic collections in the world. The collections include over 1 million objects, comprising coins, medals, decorations, and pieces of paper money. Among the many great rarities here are some of the world’s oldest coins, created 2,700 years ago. But the collection also includes the latest innovations in electronic monetary exchange, as well as beads, wampum, and other commodities once used as money. A special strength lies in artifacts that illustrate the development of money and medals in the United States. The American section includes many rare and significant coins, such as two of three known examples of the world's most valuable coin, the 1933 double eagle $20 gold piece.

This 1666 private bank note is among the earliest paper currency items issued in the Western European tradition. The numerous signatures and seal represent the Bank of Stockholm in Sweden. The denomination is 25 dalers or silver coins of an official unit in that country.

Paper currency from its earliest introduction held the promise of convenience for users who needed to transport value over distances easily. But people with considerable property were skeptical about the supposed benefits of paper currency because of the potential during crises for abuse by governments or private issuers of this new tool or instrument of exchange. The bank that issued this note, for example, needed to devote considerable sums of money to various government officials to gain approval for this novelty. Within a few years, this experiment ceased when an audit showed that insufficient assets supported the amount of money issued by the Bank of Stockholm. During the 18th century, paper became widespread to facilitate trade and commerce.

Mr. Dayton is known to history solely by the currency he had printed for his bank, and it is not known whether the bank ever opened its doors. But it was his bank, and he had the right, so his grim visage, complete with imposing widow's peak, graces each of the three known denominations: one-, two-, and five-dollar bills.

The Dayton Bank was one of thousands of private issuers, supplying the capital that created the economic miracle of 19th-century America. No government dared issue paper money in those days: Americans had been so badly burned by inflation during one crisis (the Revolutionary War), that they would not countenance another public issue until another crisis (the Civil War).

The imagery on this note is very typical of that found in this period, especially on issues from western banks. Racial and ethnic stereotypes were prevalent and emphasized the dominance of white culture.

Called upon by the British government to help fight the French in Canada in 1689, Massachusetts authorities were hard-put to comply, because official money was unavailable. The Hull/Sanderson mint, which had created Pine Tree Shillings and other coins, had been closed on Crown orders years before, and all coinage was now in extremely short supply.

Then someone had an idea: Why not issue paper certificates to pay for the supplies and troops that Massachusetts was expected to contribute? The Crown had promised to reimburse the colony, in coinage, at war's end. The experiment was tried, and it worked. The first government-issued paper money in the entire Western world had made its appearance unexpectedly in Massachusetts.

Since these notes could eventually be redeemed for coinage - were in fact as good as gold or silver - another unknown functionary had an epochal idea: why not leave them in circulation? After all, everyone accepted their status as "real" money, and the need for them was great. So it was done. Colonial authorities elsewhere watched, and when the Crown did not stop the experiment in the Bay Colony, other colonies decided to begin issuing paper currency of their own.

Paper's popularity spread, and colonial America became dependent upon it. But paper was vulnerable to counterfeiting, or, in this case, to tampering. No twenty-shilling notes were actually issued by Massachusetts in 1690. Yet someone skilled with a pen thought there ought to be one, and proceeded to create it, altering the original denomination of two shillings sixpence.

The American colonies (or states, as they now began calling themselves) issued currency of their own to pay war expenses and keep local economies afloat. Issues from Virginia featured an armored Amazon brandishing a sword. She stands above and on the prone body of a dead male ruler, whose crown has fallen on the ground. The motto could not be more plain: SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS (Be it ever thus to tyrants). This vivid image still adorns the Virginia state flag.

Unlike most Revolutionary War currency, this note was printed on only one side. And the paper for its printing left something to be desired. It looks as if this note were forcibly torn in two. But whether it was torn deliberately or by accident, someone pinned it back together-crudely but effectively.

The denomination is given as "fifteen Spanish milled dollars." Those coins were the famous "pieces of eight," now minted by machinery ("milled") in Mexico City and elsewhere. They were the monies of choice when coins were available, and Americans liked them so much that they eventually based their own United States dollar on the Spanish-American prototype.

By the time they broke with England, the thirteen American colonies had been issuing paper currency for nearly a century. Both they and the loose central government they set up under the Articles of Confederation to oversee matters of common concern would continue to do so throughout the War of Independence. The "national" paper went by the name of "Continental Currency." As its name suggests, it was issued by the Continental Congress.

The paper on which it was printed was of very high quality but was also very soft. Because the notes were often folded horizontally, they often developed top-to-bottom breaks at midpoint. Left to themselves, the two halves would eventually part company. Whether anyone would take just half a note in payment was unclear. That uncertainty led people to adopt all kinds of stratagems to keep notes intact or repair those that had torn apart.

But there was more to it than that. To many, this new money symbolized a new nation-it had to be repaired, kept afloat. Because if it were not, what would that say about the aspiring nation that had issued it? Various methods were devised to do the job. In the case of this two-dollar bill, someone expert with a needle and thread-perhaps a housewife, or a sailor-carefully sewed the two halves back together. That effort has now survived for more than two centuries.

Continental currency was printed by Benjamin Franklin's successors, Hall & Sellers. Franklin also suggested inspiring vignettes and mottoes for the notes. The face of the two-dollar bill bears an image of grain being flailed (separated from the chaff), with the motto, TRIBULATIO DITAT (Troubles make us stronger).

The thirty-dollar note was the highest denomination issued during the first three years or so of Continental Currency. We might wonder why the authorities issued such an odd denomination. The answer is that what seems odd to us seemed perfectly logical to them.

The thirty-dollar bills-and threes, fours, sixes, and eights, as well as bills worth a sixth, or a third, or two-thirds of a dollar-were put into circulation for two reasons. First, some of them were conscious substitutes for coins of the same value. And second, they were there to make change: if all you have in circulation is paper currency, you had better give the public the money it needs.

So if a merchant got an eight-dollar Continental note in payment for a five-dollar object, he could give the customer a three in return. This situation in fact lasted through the mid-1860s. Notes in today's familiar denominations are a recent phenomenon.

The image on the face of the note speaks to the advantages of righteous dealing (appropriate for a commercial object such as this note). The images on the back present two views on the reasons for the war against England. The left one (VI CONCITATAE) suggests that the colonies were forced into the conflict, while the one on the right (CESSANTE VENTO CONQUIESCEMUS) promises that they would rest and revive after it was over.

Continental currency often split in half because it was frequently folded. This bill was sewn back together to repair it.

One can't be too careful. This Connecticut note was falling apart when someone backed it with part of a contemporary newspaper, full of news about the war between England and France in the Caribbean. But simple glue would not suffice to mend the note. Someone carefully stitched the note again and again, covering it with an irregular but very strong reinforcement.

And it worked. The bill was later canceled and retired by means of a cut from the center to the bottom margin, and it still held together-as did the dreams of the patriots who created and kept it in circulation.